1839.] extent and produce of the Tea Plantations in Assam. 173 



all the plants which grew thickly together ; as it was not thought 

 worth while at the commencement of these experiments to go to the 

 expense of cleaving any more of the forest for the sake of a few strag- 

 gling plants. If these straggling plants were followed up, they would 

 in all probability be found gradually becoming more numerous, until 

 you found yourself in another tract as thick and as numerous as the one 

 you left ; and if the straggling plants of this new tract were traced, they 

 would by degrees disappear until not one was to be seen. But if you 

 only proceeded on through the jungles, it is ten to one that you would 

 come upon a solitary Tea plant, a little further on you would meet with 

 another; until you gradually found yourself in another new tract, as 

 full of plants as the one you had left, growing absolutely so thick as 

 to impede each others growth. Thus I am convinced one might go 

 on fur miles from one tract into another. All my Tea tracts about 

 Tingri di\d Kahung are formed in this manner, with only a patch of 

 jungle between them, which is not greater than what could be conve- 

 niently filled up by thinning those parts that have too many plants. At 

 Kahung I have lately knocked three tracts into one, and I shall most 

 probably have to continue doing the same until one tract shall be made 

 of what now consists of a dozen. I have never seen the end of Juggun- 

 doo's Tea tract, nor yet Kujudoo's or N.ingrew'.s. I feel confident that 

 the two former run ov er the hills and join, or nearly join, some of our 

 tracts in the Muttuch country. Nor have I seen the end of Kahung 

 tract, all about that part of the country being one vast succession of 

 Tea from Rungagurra on the Debrew, to Juipore on the Burl Dehing. 

 The Tea localities are thickly scattered — those that are known; and 

 they are but a small poriion compared to those that are unknown. 

 There is the Namsong tract on the JVaga hills, the largest that 

 has yet been seen, and the extent of which is not ascertained. 

 The tracts on the Gubind hills are unknown; and this is likewise 

 the case with Haul Holah and Cherldoo ; so that there is a 

 large field for improvement throughout, to say nothing of the Sin- 

 gho tracts, which may be found to be one unbounded link to Hoo- 

 kum; and who knows but it crosses the Irrawaddy to China? 

 Many Tea tracts I know have been cut down in ignorance by 

 the natives, to make room for the rice field, for firewood, and fences, 

 but many of these tracts have sprung up again, more vigorous than be- 

 fore. Witness that at Ningrew, where the natives say that every thing 

 was cut down, and the laud planted with rice, except on the high 

 ground. 



With respect to the Tea plant being most productive on high or low 



